Four Long Island beaches were among those in New York where water tests most frequently showed potentially unsafe levels of fecal contamination, according to a recent report by a Colorado-based environmental organization. The report, which covers states with ocean and Great Lakes beaches, calls for more investment in sewers and wetlands restoration, among other steps. State and county officials said that beaches are safe on most days, but residents can check beach status and water quality at New York State Department of Health (healthinspections.us)

In Suffolk County, Babylon’s Tanner Park in Copiague had potentially unsafe levels on 48% of testing days; Islip’s Benjamin’s Beach and Bayport Beach reached those levels on 45% and 28% of testing days.

Nicholas Spangler reports on Newsday.com that some of Long Island’s most visited beaches were also its cleanest, including Jones Beach, where measurements never reached potentially unsafe levels, and Robert Moses, where they did just once. Those beaches sit directly on the Atlantic Ocean, unlike the four beaches named in the report, which are on South Shore bays that enjoy the protection of Long Island’s barrier beaches but have lower tidal flushing.

Two Bed Bath & Beyond locations on Long Island are among 44 stores nationwide that will close this month after off-price retailer Burlington bid $12 million for their leases in a bankruptcy auction. Tory N. Parrish reports on Newsday.com that the lease sales still require a bankruptcy judge’s approval and a hearing is scheduled for July 18. Landlords for the stores can object.

The Bed Bath & Beyond locations in Oceanside and Riverhead are among 109 Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby stores that are slated for closings at the end of this month after their leases were auctioned off in June to various buyers, said A&G Realty Partners, the Melville-based company overseeing the auction.

The Bed Bath & Beyond in Riverhead Shopping Center, at 1440 Old Country Rd., occupies 30,031 square feet and opened in 2010.

There are four Bed Bath & Beyond stores and one Buy Buy Baby store remaining on Long Island.

After a fire destroyed the historic First Universalist Church in Southold in 2015, Mark Sisson of Mattituck sifted through the charred rubble, finding little more than a brass plaque and pages from a burned hymnal. Tara Smith reports on Newsday.com that days later, at a service held at the Custer Institute and Observatory, members of the Southold Fire Department presented the congregation with a bell salvaged from the debris.

“It was pretty emotional,” Sisson, 70, a member of the church, recalled. “It showed how badly the building had been burned, but it also showed it was going to be possible to continue on as a congregation and also perhaps rebuild.”

Eight years later, the vow to rebuild will become reality as the church, which dates to 1837, prepares to break ground on a $2.8 million building around a curve on Route 25 that will honor its history and once again beckon as “the church on the bend.” A ceremony will be held on Saturday July 22 at 2 p.m. on Main Road in Southold. The bell will be displayed in the new building, which could take 18 months to complete, Sisson said.

Susan Pond, treasurer on the church’s board, said concerts, yard sales, matching capital campaigns and a GoFundMe campaign have helped fundraising efforts, which are ongoing.

Realizing it would be too costly to construct a replica, church officials worked with an architect to incorporate design elements from the old church, including Gothic-style windows and an oculus above the entrance.

The building’s facade was designed in a classic, New England style that is prevalent in the area. The design was approved by the town’s Historic Preservation Commission, since the site is located within a historic district and is on Southold's register of historic landmarks.

The Wainscott school board has adopted a $4.8 million contingency budget that carries deep cuts, including the elimination of prekindergarten services and reductions in special education in the tiny East End school district.

“We have absolutely no choice,” school board president David Eagan said yesterday, calling the cuts painful, telling Newsday, “It's quite heartbreaking, frankly.” Dandan Zou reports on Newsday.com that the elimination of pre-K services in the spending plan adopted Tuesday affects six children. The reductions in special education will be filled by two of the school’s three full-time teachers who are certified in special education, Eagan said. No mandated special education services are cut, and the school will add a teacher’s aide, he said.

In addition, the plan eliminates four part-time teacher positions in art, music, computer sciences and physical education, Eagan said. There also will be no field trips.

Wainscott had to adopt a contingency budget, which includes a tax freeze, after voters failed to approve the budget May 16 and in a revote June 20.

The combined cuts would save the district about $757,000 but do not entirely cover a $1.3 million shortfall. The district still faces a hole of $541,000.

The Wainscott district is the only one of 124 school districts on Long Island where voters failed to pass a budget for 2023-24.

Food scrap composting is beginning to take off across the East End with the launch of the pilot East Hampton Compost, a community food scrap drop-off program launched this week by East Hampton Town.

The town is collaborating with ReWild Long Island to collect food scraps at the Springs and Sag Harbor farmers markets. The scraps will be composted at the town’s recycling center on Springs-Fireplace Road. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that East Hampton’s program comes on the heels of a town-wide food scrap composting program in Riverhead that launched in May after a successful pilot project in Calverton last fall, and a pilot program in Southold Town in 2020.

During this summer’s pilot, East Hampton Compost will receive food scraps at two farmers markets. The ReWild Eco Table at the Springs farmers market will receive drop-offs each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., July 15 through Sept. 23. The ReWild Eco Table at the Sag Harbor farmers market will accept limited drop-offs each Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, July 22 through late September. Additional pop-up locations may be added.

Kirby Marcantonio, an East Hampton High School Class of 1970 graduate, is seeking to actively address his hometown’s most challenging current affairs project – affordable housing.

Desirée Keegan reports on 27east.com that Marcantonio, the owner of Hampton Life Magazine, is looking to construct multiple affordable housing complexes for East Hampton Town business workers, and has asked the East Hampton School District to build one of them on 40,000 square feet of land on the northerly edge of the high school campus, to house district teachers and employees. Marcantonio said Superintendent of Schools Adam Fine suggested building one-, two- and three-bedroom units on the property that fronts Cedar Street after they met to discuss the district’s needs.

“If you were to approve this offer, we would handle all aspects of the project,” Marcantonio said during Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, where he presented the trustees with his plans. “We would work with the town and all allied agencies to secure permits. We would oversee construction, obtain New York State approval of the offering plan, sell the units to any outside groups and close the sales.” Marcantonio said according to his plan, the district boasts roughly 3 acres between the road and the rear of the last ballfield on that side of East Hampton High school. Currently, half of that land is occupied by the maintenance and grounds facilities, buildings and parking.

According to Superintendent Fine, the East Hampton School District faces looming local housing issues, with roughly 25 percent of teachers and staff spending an hour or more per day commuting to and from work. And with more approaching retirement age, the challenges of filling positions, he said, will only increase.